Chicken
by Blissful Melomaniac
Summary: Ponyboy and Curly Shepard play Chicken together. Set one year before The Outsiders. Twoshot.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders :(

_Ponyboy's point of view. (Set one year before The Outsiders.)_

On one hot summer day, me and Curly Shepard were sitting on my front porch, bored outta our minds, and all alone. Darry, Soda, and Steve were all at work, and Dally was in the cooler. God only knows where Two-bit was, and what he was doin' there. Johnny was pretty beat up from his old man, so he was resting on the couch inside.

Curly looked over at me and sighed. "What do you wanna do Pony?" By the look on his face, it didn't matter what I said; he was up for it. I didn't want to do anything inside, because I didn't want to wake Johnny up. I shrugged, looking down at my cigarette. Suddenly, an idea hit me.

"Hey!" I said, with a sudden burst of excitement. "I gotta idea!" Curly's face was showing the same excitement, probably because I always had interesting ideas.

"What?" He asked, staring at me while he waited to find out my idea. So, I didn't keep him waiting long, I yelled, "Let's play Chicken!" Curly grinned at me, obviously pleased with my idea. I was slightly worried about playing Chicken, 'cause I had never played, but anything to cure our boredom. Curly took a carton of cigarettes from his pocket, and lit one up. He took a drag on it, before he turned towards me, with an excited look. _Geez, _I thought. _This kid sure likes excitement. _

We both stood up, and on the count of three, and with all the bravery we had, we each pressed the burning tip of our cigarettes to each others index finger. I clenched my teeth, and suppressed a scream of pain, as the fire touched my skin. Curly did the same. I grimaced at the pain shooting through my finger, which felt as if it were lit on fire. Which, in a sense, it was.

Curly was biting down hard on his bottom lip, and closing his eyes tightly. I bit down on my tongue, and when that started to hurt, I bit my bottom lip too. My whole hand felt hot, and I felt sweat forming on my forehead. As a moment past, and our cigarettes got smaller, I was realizing this was one of the worst feelings I had ever felt. I knew this was going to leave a scar, but heck, it'll make me look tough. Through all the pain, I started to smell burnt flesh, and I could have threw up right then and there.

Each of us were determined not to holler like babies, but that was getting harder each second. My mouth actually opened in a wide 'O' once, but I quickly shut it before I hollered. I hadn't realized my eyes were squeezed shut until I opened them. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tim Shepard, strolling into my yard. _Oh no! _I thought. _When he finds out what we're doin' he's gonna skin us! _Curly must have saw him too, because a worried look spread across his face, and the burning cigarette he was holding pulled slightly off my -now scarred- finger.

"Holy mother of God! What are you two nuts doing?" Tim demanded, running over to us. He slapped our hands away from each other, and I was immediately thankful for the pain relief. My finger still hurt something awful, and it was bright red, and definatly scarred. Tim stared at us, but we didn't say anything; we were afraid of him. Tim put one hand on the back of each of our heads, and shoved them together hard. "Are you two crazy? If you EVER pull a stunt like that again, I'll kill you both!" He yelled.

I nodded, not sure of what to say. Now my head, and my finger were hurting. Curly nodded, rubbing his forehead. "Yeah, yeah." he muttered. Tim was glaring at each of us. "Stupid kids," he mummbled, walking inside. I considered telling him that Darry and Soda, who he was probably looking for, were at work. But, since he knocked me a Curly's head together, I decided that I wasn't gonna help him out. I looked down at my throbbing finger, then up to Curly. He grinned, and I did too.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" I said.

* * *

A/N: Haha :] I hope you enjoyed this! If your wondering where I got the idea from, look on page 134 of The Outsiders. Thanks for reading! Reviews are always welcome! *hint hint* ;)


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders.**

_Ponyboy's point of view. _

_A/N: Since everyone wanted me to make this a two-shot, I saw no reason not to, so here it is! Hope you guys like it! _

After Tim went inside, he quickly found out on his own that Darry and Soda weren't home. My parents also weren't home. Dad was at work, and Mom had went grocery shopping. I wasn't sure why he wanted to see Darry and Soda, but he didn't feel like waiting around for them.

"C'mon Curly," he said, walking out of my house. He still sounded a little angry. "I wanna stay with Ponyboy tonight," Curly argued.

"Are your parents gonna care Pony?" Tim asked me. I shook my head. "Nah, they won't care." I told him. Mom and Dad never cared if me, Soda, or Darry had friends stay over. Tim stepped closer to us, with a serious look on his face.

"Well I don't care either. But you two listen, and listen good, 'cause I'm only gonna say this once. If you two do somethin' stupid like that again, I'll skin ya both." Me and Curly just stared at him. "Ya hear?" He said loudly.

"Yeah, I hear ya," I said. I didn't exactly regret what we did, but it was okay to make Tim think I did. "Sure," Curly said.

"Alright. You two have fun, but not too much fun." Tim called over his shoulder, as he walked out of my yard. Me and Curly went inside, and into my room, so we didn't wake up Johnny. We played cards for a while, and smoked a few cigarettes.

We talked about how crazy we were to have done what we did, but in the end, neither one of us regretted it. It was something tough that we could brag about to our gangs.

XXX

A few hours later, Darry, Dad, and Soda were home from work, and Mom was home from the grocery store. Johnny had woken up, and he was feeling better, so he decided to take a chance at goin' home for the night. He said his old man usually wouldn't beat him real bad two nights in a row.

At dinner time, me, Curly, Dad, Mom, Darry and Soda sat down at the table, and talked about our days. Darry and Dad got into a conversation about roofing houses, and Soda was telling Curly some tricks for fixin' cars. I noticed Mom was staring at my hand. _Oh crap! _I thought. _She's gonna kill me! _Me and Curly hadn't thought about how many people would be after us for burnin' each other.

I tried to hide my hand from her, hoping she hadn't seen the burn. But, of course, I was too late. "Pony, what happened to your finger?" She asked me. As soon as she said that, everyone at the table turned to stare at me. I usually didn't get hurt, and when I did I definitely didn't whine about it, so nobody ever expected to hear that somethin' was wrong with me.

I looked at Curly, hoping he had something to say in the matter, but his mouth was practically sewed shut. "Um..." I said, looking down. "Meandcurlyplayedchicken." I said as fast as I could. I bent my head over my plate and started shoving food in my mouth as fast as my hands would move, so I wouldn't have to say anything else.

"Excuse me?" Mom said, still staring at me.

"Meandcur-" I started to say it fast again, this time with my mouth full, but Mom put up a hand.

"Ponyboy, swallow your food and speak up," she said. I sighed, and did as she instructed. "Me and Curly played Chicken today.." I said, still in a low voice, but loud enough for everyone to hear. I saw Sodapop trying to hide a smile. I knew he would be the only one that was proud of us.

At first Mom looked confused, but Dad quickly explained to her what Chicken was, and then she glared at me. "Ponyboy, why would you do something stupid like that?" She asked. Dad started in on us too.

"Yeah, son, why did you two do that?" I looked at Curly, and he stared back at me, his face expressionless. I wished he would pipe up with something smart to say, but he didn't. "I'm sorry, we were just playin' around..." I explained.

"Ponyboy, you must be crazy to inflict pain on yourself," Darry said. I sighed. I guessed everyone was going to start in on me. "You too Curly."

"Listen son, you ever pull a stupid stunt like that again and your in deep trouble, ya hear?" Dad asked. I nodded slowly, looking down at my scarred finger. I had stopped hurting alot, but it still felt weird.

"Yes sir," Curly said. I glared at him, thinking, _NOW you say something!_

XXX

Hahaha :] Well I hope it was all you readers were hoping for! Thanks a bunch for reading!


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